Boat Repair, Restoration, Building
One of the projects in refurbishing the Key West Sportsman is installing a new trolling motor. And of course there’s a mounting block for quick release of the motor. I call it a puck. At any rate, the deck of the boat where this puck will be mounted isn’t level, and it needs to be bolted securely without warping it. That means we need to make a custom shim. Continue reading “Making a Shim to Mount Hardware”
Every captain worth going boating with has thought about what could happen if he or she went overboard with the engine running. It’s a very dangerous scenario, and yet very few of us use the tether that’s supplied that will kill the engine if we stray too far from the helm. Hey, I’m guilty too. I’ve been knocked out of my boat and I wasn’t wearing the darn tether! Let’s just say the incident might have involved a little too much enthusiasm initiating a “power turn” and leave it at that. Luckily my friend was on board and he could stop the motor, and then start it again and drive over to me so I could climb aboard. Continue reading “Man Overboard!”
In my last post I discussed the importance of the hull-deck joint and how I repaired it on the Key West 1900 center console currently in my shop. Now that the structural repair has been accomplished, let’s talk about cosmetics. After all, we want the boat to look pretty again. Our goal is not just good-as-new structurally, but cosmetically as well!
As you can see, quite a bit of excavation and filling was required to get rid of all the stressed and cracked fiberglass. Now we have to cover that in gelcoat, the same material that was used in manufacturing the boat originally. The trick is to get a good color match. After 20 years, even if we had a batch of gelcoat from the original manufacturing run, it wouldn’t match the color of the boat now due to the fading effects of the intense sun here in South Carolina. So you have to blend your own color.
Having done that, I just layered on coat after coat until it was a little bit proud of the surrounding area, knowing that I would have to sand it smooth. In this case, it was worth it to construct a plywood dam that recreated the curve I wanted in order to define the sheer line (the line of the deck you see as you look at it from the side). With the dam in place, I could load it up with gelcoat and scrape it off even with the top of the dam.
Next comes the process of sculpting the gelcoat to the final shape. You have to take your time, being careful not to sand off too much. Of course if you do, you can always add another layer. But you have to wait a day for it to cure. Finally, polishing to a nice shine, and a coat of wax completes the repair. Good as new in all respects!
The 1999 Key West 1900 Sportsman center console boat that we’ve been hired to re-power needs some other TLC. If you’ve been following along, you know we checked the hull for water penetration and de-watered it in a previous post.
In my evaluation, I noticed that the hull-deck joint had separated for about 8 feet on the port side. This is a key structural element of any boat, and an issue that needs to be fixed. Key West uses a “shoe box” type of joint where the deck piece has a 1-1/2 inch flange that fits down over the top edge of the hull topsides. The joint is hidden by the rub rail, and is screwed and glued with 3M 5200, a very tenacious adhesive. Just imagine how much stronger a shoe box is if you glue the lid on. If you try to push in the side of the box, under the flange, it caves in pretty easily until you glue it to the top. Then it becomes a rigid, monocoque structure. Continue reading “Hull-Deck Joint Repair”
It’s not uncommon for a boat to develop soft spots in the sole around the console. Any unsealed penetration, like a console hold-down screw hole, will allow water intrusion. This boat has a fiberglass-over-plywood sole. So once the water gets to the plywood, it will eventually rot. Continue reading “Swan Point 19 Sole Repair”
In my last post I said I would tell you more about making the hatch in the waterproof bulkhead, and finishing it. Well, I’m still waiting for some of the hardware, so it’s time to move on and we’ll come back to the hatch later.
Time to build the Stem of the boat! I decided to laminate this stem because it’s easier and stronger than the traditional method of sawing it out of solid lumber pieces and bolting them together. Laminating is just gluing together multiple layers to produce a larger piece. It’s also used as an alternative to steam bending wood. We’re going to do a lot of laminating on this boat. So let’s get started.
The water-tight bulkhead forward of the engine compartment needs a hatch opening so you can access the area forward of frame 3. We have to cut an opening and frame it and the hatch. We’ll have to design the frame for both pieces, determine proper placement of the hinges and opening hardware, and make it waterproof. Continue reading “Building a Hatch Opening”
I recently got a call to diagnose and repair a Xantrex Freedom 20 inverter-charger. An inverter-charger is a dual purpose machine that can either charge your batteries using shore power, or create AC power from your batteries while you’re away from shore power. What’s more, it can share your shore power feed between whatever you want to use it for on the boat and the battery charger, giving some power to each. So you can charge your batteries and enjoy using your air conditioner while making margaritas with your blender! Continue reading “Xantrex Freedom 20 Repair”
We’ve been talking about making all the pieces for the transom of our Palm Beach 22. If you missed that part of the discussion, you can check it out at making the Transom Cheeks and Making the Transom Bows. Now it’s time to put these parts together into a unified whole. We need some guideposts, something to tell us how this piece should look when we’ve put it together successfully. Continue reading “Assembling the Transom Frame”
The transom bows are the curved top and bottom pieces that give you the shape of that beautiful transom you see on classic runabouts. Nelson Zimmer’s plan calls for a 5 foot radius curve. He also calls for a deck crown or “camber” of 2-1/2 inches at the transom.
So we’ve got two pieces to make, bent to a 5 foot radius. And the top one has to have a curve cut on top of it to support the crown of the deck as well. Continue reading “Making the Transom Bows”